Photo-supercapacitors for the Future: Integrating Solar Conversion and Energy Storage into a Single Platform

Abstract

The integration of two major areas related to energy harvesting and storing photovoltaics with supercapacitors is garnering significant interest, making a wider technological impact in the domain of energy science and technology that aims to develop self-powered devices. Perovskite materials are one such photovoltaic material that is suitable for such device integration due to their exceptional power conversion efficiency and stability. While research is primarily focused on the enhancement of photovoltaic and supercapacitors' parameters separately, their low overall efficiency in integrated technology hinders their on-field applicability, keeping it away from the interest of industries. Various integration approaches, including conventional integration, three-electrode and two-electrode monolithic integration, are discussed for successful integration. Various strategies with a focus on charge transport layer and shared electrode selection, device configuration, and photoactive layer engineering have proven to be effective for the growth of integrated photovoltaic supercapacitors. The multifunctional applications of integrated technology in energy-conversion, storage, and saving applications have been discussed. Moreover, the discussion also highlights several challenges associated with the integrated technology alongside proposed measures to mitigate these bottlenecks.